Benjamin Zephaniah is a British writer, dub poet and Rastafarian, born and raised in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, which he has called the “Jamaican capital of Europe”. He writes that his poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what he calls “street politics”. Zephaniah has spoken extensively about his personal experiences of anti-Black racism in Britain and has incorporated his experiences in much of his written work. He was included in The Times list of Britain’s top 50 post-war writers in 2008 and he was recently nominated to be an Oxford don.

In his poem ‘Neighbours’, the narrator describes himself: he is black, foreign, big, has dreadlocks, is uneducated, uses drugs (a grass eater), the type you are supposed to fear. He speaks a strange, unintelligible language (“I talk in tongues”) and keeps company with wild animals. The poem can be found on Zephaniah’s website https://benjaminzephaniah.com/rhymin/neighbours/

The neighbour is not described, but we may assume that he is the narrator’s opposite: a native Briton, white, small or medium-sized, with an ordinary hair style and he might feel threatened by his new neighbour who is “the type you are supposed to fear”.

Part 1 has words with negative connotations, e.g. black and foreign, where Part 2 has the positive counterparts, e.g. dark and mysterious; moon/night – sun/day. Part 2, stanza 1 (lines 22-29) is a contrast in content: this time the narrator lists the positive stereotypes. The last stanza (lines 30-31) is the narrator’s simple statement about how he feels.

The title: “Neighbours” indicates that the two characters live next door to each other and they can’t help noticing each other. This is how it is in today’s multicultural Britain and elsewhere: no ethnic group can live in total isolation – so why not make the most of it?

The message the poet wants to send is that prejudice makes you see things and people from one side only – most often the negative side because you are afraid of the unknown. He points out the other side – the positive one (“I am the type you are supposed to love”), and in this case the narrator, the stranger who is about to move in, is good-looking, intelligent, does not drink, does community work (talks in schools), is talented, appears on TV and in the newspapers, and has prominent friends (cool cats).

The main themes of this poem are xenophobia (fear of strangers) the negative stereotypes, and racial prejudice and it is important to understand that the poem does not, in any way, present any race as superior; it only tries to reconcile past differences and promote tolerance alongside equity.

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